Rep. Moran: GOP Won Midterms Due to Racism

Rep. James Moran, D-Va., told an Arab-language television network that Republicans swept to victory in the 2010 midterm elections because many Americans don’t want to be ruled by a black man. A spokeswoman for the congressman defended the remarks saying it is no secret that our country “continues to struggle with racial equality,” the Washington Post reports.

In an interview with the U.S.-funded Alhurra network, which is Arabic for “the free one,” Moran asserted that the Democratic losses in the midterm elections “happened because of the same reason the Civil War happened in the United States. The Civil War happened because the Southern states, particularly the slave-holding states, didn't want to see a president who was opposed to slavery.

“In this case a lot of people in this country, I believe, don’t want to be governed by an African-American, particularly one who is inclusive, who is liberal, who wants to spend money on everyone and who wants to reach out to include everyone in our society. That’s a basic philosophical clash,” the Post reported Moran as saying.

Moran spokeswoman Anne Hughes said in a statement that there are nearly “1,000 identified hate groups in the U.S., and recent studies showing a majority of Americans believe racism is still widespread against African-Americans. It is no secret that our country has and continues to struggle with racial equality. The Congressman was expressing his frustration with this problem and the role it played in the last election," the Post said.

Moran is no stranger to controversy. In 2003 he asserted the United States went to war in Iraq because of “the strong support of the Jewish community” and in 2007 he said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has pushed the war and did not “represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking,” the Post said.

The Alhurra network is a U.S. taxpayer-funded arm of Middle East Broadcasting Networks Inc., which, according to its website, is financed by the “U.S. Government through a grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent federal agency.”